Object-based data storage device

Abstract

A data storage device includes storage media with multiple media zone attributes of storage performance. The storage device includes a data channel that is connectable to a host system. The data channel receives an object from the host system that has a requested storage attribute attached to the object. The storage device comprises an object-based storage interface that couples between the data channel and the storage media. The object-based storage interface schedules the object for storage in a selected zone of the multiple media zones based on the attributes and requested attributes.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method for allocating data attributes from an i-node to storage media, the method comprising:
 sending, by a host system, a data object containing i-node attributes to a storage device, wherein the storage device comprises:
 a data channel; 
 an object-based storage interface, coupled to the data channel, wherein the interface is operable to allocate data to particular media zones for storage based on access frequency; and 
 storage media, coupled to the object-based storage interface, with multiple media zones having differing zone attributes of storage performance, and wherein the zones are physically separate; 
 
 receiving the data object through the data channel; 
 providing the data object to the object-based storage interface; 
 receiving the data object at the object-based storage interface; 
 analyzing the data object i-node attributes to determine one or more i-node attribute access frequencies; 
 allocating to the storage media, by the object-based storage interface, the i-node attributes, based on the one or more i-node attribute access frequencies;
 wherein the less frequently accessed portion of the storage media comprises i-node write attributes; 
 wherein the more frequently accessed portion of the storage media comprises i-node read attributes; 
 
 storing the i-node attributes in the allocated zones of the storage media. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1  wherein the more frequently accessed portion is stored in an I-node extension. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1  wherein the zone attributes are stored in a map that maps the zone attributes as a function of zone physical addresses. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1  wherein the zone attributes comprise zone attributes determined from a test of the storage device. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1  wherein the zone attributes comprise zone attributes determined from both a test of the storage device and tests of a representative sample of a group of storage devices. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1  wherein the object-based storage interface provides data format conversion. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1  wherein the storage device comprises stored information on the storage media including throughput per zone and remapped sectors. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1  wherein the storage device stores multiple copies of the same object on different parts of the storage media.